Political Scene: Budget Rope-a-Dope

President Obama’s speech on the budget yesterday was “one of the best he’s given,” Hendrik Hertzberg says on this week’s Political Scene podcast. “It was kind of like one of Roosevelt’s fireside chats. He told some stories. He gave a narrative frame to why liberalism, if I may use that poisonous term, is such a crucial part of the American story.”

George Packer, who joins Hertzberg and John Cassidy on the podcast, also deems Obama’s speech a success. “Without much poetry, it was a strong statement of philosophy about the role of government, and I think it’s something that his supporters, his party, had been wondering why he hadn’t done until yesterday,” he said. But Packer has concerns about how the President will proceed.

Obama seems to have a habit of negotiating with himself first, giving up a few things before he’s even entered into the bargaining at the table, and then giving up more, because the Republicans always seem prepared to go further and to take hostages, to take more extreme action.

Cassidy gives the Administration credit for how it has handled the negotiations so far. “I’m almost convinced that the White House took a strategic decision a few months ago to let Paul Ryan come out with this detailed plan of his, which they could then attack from the sides,” he says. “The White House was basically playing rope-a-dope for a while, I think. Now they’re coming out fighting, and I think the real budget debate is only beginning.”